For 35mm, I use Hewes and ease of loading is just incredible. That's what a lot of people recommend, too. But I don't hear much of anything being said about 120 reels.

Is Hewes worth its price for 120? Or should I just go with store brand/generic?

03-03-2013, 09:33 PM

Andrew Moxom

Hewes all the way. They will pay for themselves in saved frustation, and wasted film!!! The generic/cheaper reels are not always straight, and end up causing issues when loading, and its easy to screw the film up.

03-03-2013, 09:42 PM

Konical

Good Evening,

I agree that the Hewes 35mm reels are definitely the easiest to load. I don't happen to have any Hewes 120 reels, so I can't comment on them except to note that they seem to get universally positive reviews from others. I find that the Kinderman 120 reels are excellent in quality and are quite easy to load.

Konical

03-03-2013, 10:21 PM

ac12

If you can find the old Honeywell Nikor reels, those are GOOD.
I stocked up on them when I found a bunch of them.

Some of the generics are OK, others are JUNK.
For your first reels I would get known good brands.

But as Andrew said, if you are buying used, you need to make sure that the reel is not damaged, because even a good reel will turn to junk if it is damaged.

03-03-2013, 10:49 PM

tkamiya

I'll go with Hewes then. I have no idea who made my current ones but only one is great, others aren't. I just tossed out not-so-good ones so I don't mistakenly try to use them.